The Odd Thing

From Phil Churchill:
I've been going through my books on the history of man and I notice a common theme among cultures. Every one of them wasted their resources during times of abundance and the habit was so ingrained that it continued into times of shortage. All cultures have found it difficult to change during times of stress and as the stress passed most of them went right back to the old wasteful ways within one generation. The only cultures that didn't were the so-called primitive cultures. They seem to be the only ones that permanantly learned the lessons. Even in times of plenty they kept a reserve of supplies on hand. The odd thing is that the cultures that had writing forgot the lessons the quickest. Those cultures that relied on oral tradition retained them. It seems as if once something was written down, it was put away into storage and only the people who kept the records had the
knowledge available. Good thing if you're a priest or leader who wants to retain power over others, bad thing for society as a whole. Perhaps the fact that nearly everyone in our society can read and has access to most records, will finally allow us learn the lessons for good.